Secular-Sacred Hybridity of Ren’ai: Charitable Organisations, Religious Networks and Ethical Identities in Contemporary China

Abstract This article explores the growth of religious philanthropy in contemporary China over the first two decades of the twenty-first century. By describing the strategies of one of China’s most important Buddhist-inspired charities at macro, meso, and micro scales, I argue that the Ren’ai Charity Foundation’s success is due to its strategic blurring of the boundaries between the sacred and the secular. This strategy is manifest in its negotiations with the secular state, internal organizational structures, and ethical discourse. Sacred-secular hybridity, the central concept advanced in this article, is an important feature of China’s religious revival, and an important example of innovative strategies employed by non-government organizations in the policy gray areas of contemporary China. The sacred-secular hybridity of Ren’ai not only reveals the latest developments within Chinese religious philanthropy, but also serves as a theoretical framework to better understand the contested category of religion in contemporary China.